Expression of osteopontin and MMP-9 in gastric carcinoma and their clinical significance

Objective:To investigate the expression of osteopontin(OPN) and MMP-9 in gastric carcinoma and their correlation with metastasis and recurrence. Methods: Immunohistochemisty was employed to determine the expression of OPN and MMP-9 in 80 gastric carcinoma tissues. Results: The positive rates of OPN and MMP-9 in gastric carcinoma tissues were 71.25%(57/80) and 48.75%(39/80), respectively; The expression of OPN was significantly correlated with the invaded depth, recurrence of tumor, liver metastasis, and lymph node metastasis, but not correlated with clinical stage, tumor size, and histological types. The expression of MMP-9 in gastric carcinoma tissue was significantly correlated with clinical stage, invaded depth, recurrence of tumor, liver metastasis, and lymph node metastasis, but not correlated with tumor size and histological types. There was a significantly positive relationship between OPN and MMP-9. Conclusion: Both OPN and MMP-9 are significantly related to the metastasis of gastric carcinoma and over-expression of both OPN and MMP-9 has some predicting significance of metastasis and recurrence of gastric carcinoma.